A question for the content Lindens...

Why the frak are you not building by the numbers? 161.39589 is not a good number for a neatly-designed walkway, you know.



LF

Most people are sane enough to not worry about numbers... I used to build everything by the numbers but I soon discovered that I could just eyeball stuff and no one would be the wiser.
For me, worrying about math and precise alignments takes all the fun out of building.

See, that's where my fun comes in... precision engineering. It irks me when someone makes a wall that has a .001 gap in it, or has flashing textures because it's two objects occupying the same space.

It gives me joy to make something that's actually fairly mathematically precise.

LF

That makes two of us LF. I just effin freak when I see that kind of thing in progress and I urge all to try to go by the numbers to make SL a more beautiful place. I mean, slapping objects together and hoping "no one will be the wiser" just aint gonna cut it...

I go by the snap grid myself. It saves a lot of time otherwise spent on correcting the flashing textures and gaps.
Doing it without numbers is blehhh, even if others don't know any better, _I_ would know my build is underhanded.

Casting my vote for the snap to grid tool
If I wanted to build something with mathematical precision, I would script it to build itself...

I build exclusively with numbers. I can't do it any other way.

I build by numbers as well. I hate seeing gaps in my own work, because I know they are there.

Precision builds look SO much nicer... Use the damn numbers!

- Ace

you can build without numbers?! who knew!!! wait... who would want to know? numbers! numbers! numbers!

I build by the grid (now, because it's actually stable this version) within a .125 tolerance, but also use mathematical precision to align the grid properly.

Plus, if you look at some of the Linden objects, they have weird dimensions, too... 9.204 and 4.2305 and whatnot, on TOP of the wonky coordinates.

I dunno, just seems sloppy

LF

My feeling is that if numbers and a snap-to-grid are provided, then they should work with lockstep mathematical precision. This is a digital world. If one wants to "build by feel", then you ideally can just turn the grid off and do it however you want.

But, I would like Snap-To-Grid should work as intended down to 0.010 precision.

Lordfly, man, I feel exactly the same way you do about building. Wanna be frustrated as heck? Come build in Prainha where numbers don't work as most everything has to be rotated (because of the landscape) and must be built by eyeballing.

I tried following suggestions about building without rotation and then moving to the proper location, but many times I am not able to link, so that blows that.

And yes, I cry as you do when I see minute gaps or flashing textures

- T -

ps. Are you still running your 'detailing' business?

me too

Precision builds look nicer, no arguement there. But, what does that have to do with the width of a sidewalk?

I used to snap to grid with .125 sensitivity on a house & immediately threw it out the window. I even started first floor prim at a very even coordinate set (like 20.000 and 50.000) and made all floor blocks out of 10x10x2 prims.

Because the floor prims had a floor texture on the top (but not on the sides of the blocks) I immediately saw gaps. Dont ask me why but when I hand enter the numbers in for offsets I never ever get this gap, no matter what textures are on the floor prims.

Thank God I have patience or these little quirky things would drive me to quit building completely. And I agree with everyone else here, anyone making flashing textured prims or visible gaps should be shot on site

pffft, if i built by numbers i'd go insane lol

People have done that blaze has his amazing computerized building system (search the forum for "30 second skyscraper" and Rhu Altman is working on Intellibricks (touch to self-align) when he's not breeding Genprims.

I think the Lindens have similar tools, though maybe not as generic. I do know they have a tree rezzer of sorts..

math is important it saves time espacally if i wannt mirror a object its a lot harder if i just eye balled it. but even though you do it by real world math you have to make you objst so every one can ride on problem i keep seeing in SL is people that are too tall there is notinh wrong with that but some people just dont know any better and they dont fit in certain ships because they are too tall.

I build by the numbers whenever possible, but sometimes I see a geometry problem looming and just say, "Hmmm...no." It would be nice to have 3 decimal places in all the Object variables, especially Cut. How can you build elegantly in a binary environment without 8ths?

I build by eye. You don't need to use the numbers to avoid gaps and flashing textures. Even when modeling a client's building or product in 3ds Max I work by eye only. Absolute precision isn't necessary unless the model's going to be used for stereo lithography or other physical prototyping. In a visual medium, if it looks right it is right.

I'm a perfectionist. I use the numbers and worship them as if they were gods. Hehe, I eyeball some stuff, but I use the numbers whenever possible.

and for a noob he damn well rocks!!!!

^_- You're too kind! *blushes*